Ice and snow on roads and bridges can significantly slow traffic and increase danger to drivers. In addition to mechanical removal, chemical compounds are often used to prevent accumulation or aid removal of ice and snow from roadways. Chloride salts, whether in solid form, solution, or in admixture with sand and other substances, are commonly used to treat roadways to melt snow and ice. Sodium chloride salts especially are commonly used due to low cost and abundant supply. Most deicing compounds, however, are environmentally harmful. Further, chloride salts can significantly increase corrosion to metals in highway and bridge infrastructure and motor vehicles. Many salts also cause spalling in concrete structures, further damaging roadway infrastructure. Therefore, municipalities are often restricted in the amounts and types of substances that they may use to help remove snow and ice from roadways.
Considering the above problems associated with salt de-icer formulations, there has been a continuing need for deicing compositions which can effectively melt snow and ice yet which reduce the corrosion and environmental contamination associated with conventional materials, especially if such compositions can be produced at costs competitive with incumbent salt based deicing products.
It is well known that agricultural by-products can be used as components of more environmentally friendly deicing products. These materials are generally complex mixtures that may enhance the freezing point reduction characteristics of conventional deicing compositions, and may also reduce their corrosiveness. Further, these agricultural by-products are generally biodegradable, environmentally benign, and inexpensive.
Conventional de-icing solutions which employ agricultural residues are typically extremely variable in composition, viscosity, film forming tendency, freezing temperature, and pH, and consequently give varying performance when used in de-icing solutions. Further, there may be practical difficulties associates with some of these ingredients and compositions such as stratification in storage, biological degradation, odor, plugging of filters and spray nozzles and environmental difficulties (e.g. high biological oxygen demand due to the very high organic content, and the presence of high phosphorus levels).
To improve quality and performance, and to meet current mandated standards, there is a continuing need for low cost materials, based on agricultural residuals and by-products, which exhibit improved de-icing performance, and reduce metal corrosion and spalling of concrete.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide deicing formulations which exhibit minimal corrosiveness, and which are based on low cost agricultural byproducts.
It is another object of the present invention to provide economical, highly effective deicing formulations.